Tag: gratitude

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Celebrating the small victories

It must be a November thing.

Because when I sat down this week to to write, I thought “it’s been a hard fall, but I should count up and share some of the wins”

And then I remembered, I had posted something like that before.

Turns out it was almost exactly a year ago. I didn’t plan that, but maybe next year I will. (#MathacognitiveTraditions)

Maybe it’s the influence of a holiday about gratitude (and carbs, which are also a thing I am grateful for). Maybe it’s the declining amount of sunlight, which always challenges me.

But mostly, I think it’s about being a few months into the school year. The new-ness has worn off (even this year, with so much new) and a holiday break is sounding good, and I (and I assume you) could use a reminder of the positives.

(When I do teacher self-care workshops, this is always the first strategy I recommend, so practicing what I preach. Also, all the research agrees)

So, the struggles with tech and attendance and the impacts of the world on our students (and our teachers) are very real and very present. But, I’m taking a minute to remind myself of the wins.

Text: Noticing the positives ... even in a hard season. Image: Silhouette of a person on a road, facing a bright sun. Arms raised with fingers in a V sign

Including …

+The student who came, so sick and still determined to zoom class.

+And the classmates who taught her the exponent lesson she had missed. (And passed along home remedies and good wishes)

+And the one who had been MIA for a few weeks who came back (I think it was the email “I’m worried because we haven’t seen you…” Because, connection, even in the slog of managing remote attendance)

+And the one who asked for quadratics. And the one who has been in school for like 2 months in the last 10 years who jumped into algebra on Khan academy.

I am worried about other students, and the challenges of the year, but these and others can keep us moving forward and reaching out and putting the best teaching we can out there.

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The benefits of experience

Events in my life have recently reminded me how long I’ve been at this.

I started in adult education with a volunteer gig in 2008, which became a part time job, and then a career.

All together, it means, I’ve been teaching for just about 10 years, and involved in adult ed for 12. Plus the years of higher ed before that.


Sometimes, this makes me feel old.

Sometimes it just feels unreal.

Sometimes, it makes me feel super grateful.

Mostly, lately, I’ve been feeling the gratitude. Because I’m far enough in to have learned some lessons and gained some perspective and be able to see the benefits of both.

Three reasons I’m loving in this stage:

My network: My version of hell looks something like a cocktail party. I’m an introvert, and until recently, I would tell you I’m terrible at networking because I’m terrible at the work a room cocktail party kind of networking. But when you do good work and help people and build real relationships for a dozen years, it turns out you have a pretty good network. I’ll be honest, my mind is still a little bit blown to realize this is true.

Compounding interest: To take one example… It’s not a big deal for me to make and do my spiral reviews now, because one year I scanned all of my materials to google drive; and another year, I worked out the classroom routines; and another year I made the template. It’s daunting imagining doing that all at once, but step by step, year by year improvements add up.

Go-to activities: I had to pivot a lesson this week. I like quick pivots on only slightly better than cocktail parties, but they are sometimes a fact of life. Fortunately, I had a mental list of tried and true go-to activities that I could plug my content into and move forward without a lot of fuss. I definitely did not have that when I was starting out Feeling confident that I have tools I can count on makes those things So. Much. Easier.

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Wins

We have definitely, totally, absolutely reached that time of year. The new-year energy has worn off, we’re all a little tired, feeling a little behind, maybe a little overwhelmed, and just grateful that we get a short break next week.

It’s real. I’ve given out chocolate, and tissues, and lots of deep breaths lately.

And, I am very aware of the class with the terrible attendance, and the students who struggle, and all of the things on the calendar that add stress, and all of the resources that I wish we had but we don’t.

 

And, yet, the little wins.

 

They’re there too, when I remember to breath and notice.

A few weeks ago, we did this open middle challenge.  My students were so into it, they didn’t want to move on when I told them they could. And, my college student volunteer took it home to see if she could get exactly one.

And in another class, we tried these order of operations riddles (freebie!) and one group was so into getting every. last. one. that they argued hard against showing the answer key at the end of the class. They got it, averting their eyes and solving it with seconds to spare.

I’m grateful for the people who put creative and engaging teaching out there. But, my favorite wins are just my students, working  and learning.

I showed my (struggling) middle level class a preview of Algebra equation solving when we were finding the missing side in area. Most of them thought I was nuts to do so much extra writing when they could just divide, get an answer and move on. But one student, who sits in the back and struggles with math and rarely says much, kinda liked it. And when she was done with the first task, took on some simple equations (? + 7 = 15), and then some less simple equations, and by the end of the two hour class was slowly solving two step equations (2x+6=20)

 We had one of those nights early on, where enough of the class had to take an assessment that I couldn’t do anything new. It was early, but I gave the few left in class some practice HiSET tests to look at. Mostly they looked at them, their eyes got wide, and they threw up their hands. I moved on (I’ve never seen such enthusiastic agreement to switching to word problems) But one student stuck with it. He doesn’t know more of the math, he’s just more able to sit with it. He and a tutor worked that practice test for two hours, and then for homework, and then when he had free time in another class.  A few weeks ago, he asked for another test.